Meandering Path Quilt by Jenna

I wanted to show off a beautiful quilt made with my Meandering Path pattern! It was made by Jenna from SewHappyGeek and I think she did an awesome job. It's always so fun to see the quilt with different fabrics.

The quilt is made with Fig Tree Quilts Breakfast at Tiffany's line by Moda. I just love the colors. Feeling inspired? All you need is a layer cake and charm pack and you are good to go!

If you have made this quilt or are thinking about it, I would love to see it and share it! Thanks Jenna, you did an amazing job. Shake it baby!

Easter Outfits

 Whew! I got the girls outfits done before Easter. Usually every year we all match and I even find the girls matchy matchy dresses. But I thought I'd be a bit more casual and let the girls choose their own colors. (I'm learning to let go, it's so hard!)

 

Sophie is of course my blue and green girl. And you can't go wrong with Amy Butler fabrics. The polka dot is Kaffe Fassett. The pattern is Hippy Chick from Pink Fig.

I Grabbed one of the large flowers, cut it out and appliqued it to the shirt. Of course I had to add some bling.

 I combined the Classic Skirt with the bottom ruffle of the Bohemian version on the pattern. I like the way it turned out, better still, Sophie loved it.

 

Next up, my little Magpie. She loves yellow and I couldn't resist the vintage florals of Moda's Dream On fabric line. All it took was a charm pack and a little extra yardage. 

The pattern is also from Pink Fig, The Patchwork Skirt.

Charlotte's is also the Patchwork Skirt. Her fabric is Moda's Bliss by Bonnie and Camille. I just love the combination of aqua and red.

I did the same thing on her shirt as Sophie's. I use Lite Steam-A-Seam 2. I don't finish the edges because I like when I wash it and it frays up a bit. And yes then I added bling. I use Jolee's iron-on jewels.

Charlotte was just obsessed with the little lamb Pez dispenser she got in her Easter basket. She walked around with it all day.

Well, another beautiful Easter down. We had a wonderful day at church and then had my brother over and ate a delicious meal. Just love the holidays! Hope yours was grand!

 

Easter Blessings

Wishing You a Happy and Joyful Easter!

Projects

 I have been in the mood to sew some clothes for my girls. I've made a bunch of quilts lately and it's been nice to do some other projects. I made a couple of skirt for my youngest two and now I'm hoping to complete this Hippy Chick (by Pink Fig) skirt for my oldest by well, Sunday. For Easter. Which probably would have worked fine if I hadn't gotten sick. But I'm in slow motion as we speak! (Or type and read as is the case.;) Wish me luck!

I have also been dying to make the Oliver+S Jump Rope dress for my littlest for a long time. This looks like it will be a bit more work, but I just love their patterns and can't wait to get started.
The biggest project I want to start on is a mini makeover of the family room. I think it may be time to ditch the pink. Which is huge for those that know my Shabby Chic style. The problem is I have $0.00 for a budget which is pretty challenging, no? I think it's time to go on a selling spree!

Excuses

Excuses for not getting more sewing done (can anyone say 3 WIP quilts that need attention?):

Pocahontas! Okay so not her so much as two different biography reports of her. Yes, both of my girls picked her. Probably because she is their 14th Great Grandmother on their dad's side. Truly, how cool is that? But getting those done and that poster was a bit of work for all involved.

 The school's Jog-A-Thon. I helped organize the shirts and of course had to see my girls run their hineys off!

Sophie turned 11! We took her out to lunch and then for a little birthday shopping. Nothing like a new outfit. Later we headed to Downtown Disney and the Rainforest Cafe to celebrate. And can you believe it? I left my camera at home. I almost could not get over it! But it was a fun night.

Can't believe my precious girl starts Middle School next year. Ei, yie, yie!

 Charlotte and Sophie 2 & 11 but so much alike in so many ways.

The weather here has been amazing, how could we not hit the beach? After chores were done Saturday we headed to Laguna Beach. It was glorious! We thought we would just take a little stroll, but we stayed for a couple of hours.

Charlotte had not been for months and she just loved it! The water did not scare her at all which of course scared us.

So those are some of my excuses. The kids also had their first swim meet last Saturday. And yes I forgot to bring my camera to that too. What's up with that?

Some excuses would be my busy church assignment, laundry, cooking, cleaning, driving, driving, driving, and just utter exhaustion. 

So excuse me! More fun coming soon. Promise.

Spring Break

 The kids had their Spring Break last week. Needless to say I did not get much done. :) We decided not to take any big trips, but we still had some fun. We headed down to San Diego for an overnight and the zoo!

 

We hadn't been to the zoo for about 5 years so my monkeys were pretty excited. It's the first time Charlotte, my two year old had ever seen most of these animals. Flamingos!

View of Balboa Park from the sky tram. The kids loved riding it. I think we took it like 6 times. It was a cold day, but everyone was bundled. And with all the walking we did, I'm glad it was not any warmer!

The Elephant Odyssey was new since we had been there before and really cool.

Lots of room for the amazing elephants to roam.

The kids loved all of the animal statues around the park. Life size elephants...

An extinct bird, or Charlotte's own Buckbeak...

And Sam almost as tall as the sloth (Sloth, not life size, Sam a life size 6ft. 13 year old).

 

Pretty cool to be able to get this close to a Leopard.

We had such a great day, I just love my wild animals kids. 

So it's back into the groove again. Let's just say none of us had an easy time getting up this morning....

Sara's Heart Garden

This quilt has been christened "Sara's Heart Garden". It has a story. It was truly a labor of love.

This is Sara. And this is her story. Sara was not supposed to be born. She was the weaker of a set of twins and her parents were told that her heart has not formed properly in the womb and would probably not make it. Sara was born weighing 3 lbs.15oz. Four days after she and her twin Anna were born, she underwent open-heart surgery. At 5 1/2 months she underwent a second surgery. Sara had many complications after this surgery, including suffering a stroke while in the hospital. Despite this, Sara was determined to keep up with her twin and learned to crawl and walk shortly after her sister with no noticeable effects of the stroke. She definitely had the will to live and continued to blossom and grew into a spunky little four year old who is much loved by her sister and family.

On August 2, 2010, Sara had her last planned open heart surgery. It went well, but the results weren't quite as hoped and it was determined that Sara would need a pacemaker. That surgery also went well and Sara was finally able to be home again. But within a couple of months Sara was just not herself. On January 13th Sara was taken in to have a heart catheterization. Cardiac catheterization is a diagnostic and occasionally therapeutic procedure that allows a comprehensive examination of the heart and surrounding blood vessels. It's a fairly routine procedure. But soon after Sara was put under anesthesia she went into cardiac arrest. She was revived and air lifted to a children's hospital. On January 15th, Sara slipped into a coma. 

It was about a month later that I learned of Sara's story from my dear friend, Rachel who is in Sara's family's church congregation. I also knew the family but had not been aware of the situation. We talked about wanting to help, but not sure what we could do.

On Febuary 6th, 2011 beautiful little Sara lost her battle and passed away in her mother's arms.


Later that week Rachel was talking with another mutual friend, Natalie. Natalie had lost her little 4 month old son, Matthew in a car crash caused by a drunk driver 8 years ago. She had said that the thing that had comforted her the most was a blanket that someone had made for their family. They told her that whenever they missed Matthew they could wrap themselves in this blanket and feel his love surrounding them and the love from our Heavenly Father. What a wonderful idea. The three of us decided that is what we would do for Sara's family.

I had already started working on my Heart Garden quilt. I have always loved hearts and just thought it might be a fun holiday quilt. But now I knew there was another reason why I had started making it.

 

Sara's funeral was held on Febuary 12th. For multiple reasons the theme was hearts. Sara's favorite color was pink and everyone was asked to wear that color. This is the program from that day. There was standing room only in the chapel and overflow and not a dry eye in the room. It was a beautiful program and I felt blessed just to be in attendance.

 

I worked on the quilt as often as possible. It means so much more when you making things to give away. I wanted to quilt to be cozy so I backed it with minky. I still used batting so it's a nice, soft, heavy quilt.

I stippled the quilt with a kind of curly cue quilting.

For the wide border I traced and stitched a heart pattern.

This is the heart quilt tag that I placed on the back. I did a blanket stitch around the edge as I did with the other heart appliques on the quilt.

 We made plans to meet with Sara's mom and give the quilt to her family. This is Rachel, me, and Natalie before we left. We had no idea that we matched the quilt! We prayed that this would be meaningful for their family and hopefully be a little comfort along the way.

We shared with them our story and Natalie her story and how it had helped her family. The best part was Sara's little twin, Anna. She couldn't stop smiling. She started curling herself up in the quilt right away. It was so sweet and touching. 

After we left the house the three of us hugged and I said that I thought the whole experience was maybe more for us and little Anna than anyone else. I am so grateful to have been able to share in even a little part of Sara's story. And I know she and her lovely family will be together again someday.

FREE Printable Menu Plan + Shopping List

Okay, so can you tell I'm a little obsessed with menu planning these days? I'm just excited to finally be getting on the ball with something I should have been doing years ago. I wanted a grocery shopping list to go with my menu plan. So I made one!

It prints on one page, so you can fold it in half and take it to the store. That way you can cross check and remember what your meal plan was (why was I buying water chestnuts?). When you're done shopping just cut on the dotted line and put the post you plan on your fridge or wall so you can glance at it during the week.
Click HERE to download it in Green.
Click HERE to download it in Aqua.

The categories on the list work for me, but if you need to add or subtract (like baby or pets) let me know and I will make one up for you and email it to you. Bon Appetit!